Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Telegraph: Bloom or bust? Traditionally this is the season when the housing market picks up, but do reports of rising prices in some areas really represent the green shoots of recovery, or a false dawn, asks Ross Clark. When they suffer a shortage of punters coming through their doors, estate agents usually blame "negative media comment". But they certainly won't be able to use that excuse this year, should the property market get into problems. The headlines have been anything but downbeat: "February surge in prices"; "Buy-to-let buyers back" and "City boys snap 'em up" are a few of the headlines which appeared last week alone. Either a lot of journalists must be moving - or they have tired of writing that house prices are set to crash.